Virginia AG says he wore blackface at college party

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia sank deeper into political turmoil Wednesday when one other top Democrat — Licensed educated Standard Imprint Herring — admitted inserting on blackface within the Eighties, when he used to be a university student.

With Gov. Ralph Northam’s occupation in vulgar ache over a racist photo in his 1984 clinical college yearbook, Herring issued a assertion saying he wore brown make-up and a wig in 1980 to witness like a rapper all via a occasion as a 19-year-ragged at the University of Virginia.

Herring, 57, said he used to be “deeply, deeply sorry for the wretchedness that I cause with this revelation.”

The legal educated modern issued the assertion after rumors of a blackface photo of Herring had circulated at the Capitol for a day or extra. However in his assertion, he said nothing about the existence of this kind of photo.

The disclosure extra roils the tip ranges of Virginia govt. Democratic Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who would be next in line if Northam resigned, used to be confronted with uncorroborated allegations of sexual misconduct earlier this week. He denied the accusations, calling them a political smear.

Herring would be next in line to be governor after Fairfax.

In his assertion, Herring said he and two buddies dressed as a lot as witness like rappers they listened to, alongside side Kurtis Blow, admitting: “It sounds ridiculous even now writing it.”

“That habits clearly reveals that, as a young man, I had a callous and inexcusable lack of realizing and insensitivity to the wretchedness my habits would perchance well well inflict on others,” he said.

However he furthermore said: “This habits is by no means reflective of the particular person I even beget become within the almost 40 years since.

Herring, who plans to lumber for governor in 2021, is amongst those who beget urged Northam to resign after the invention of a photograph on Northam’s yearbook profile page of any individual in blackface standing next to a particular person in a Ku Klux Klan hood and gown.

Closing Friday, Herring condemned that photo as “indefensible” and said it is a ways “no longer that you just might perchance even imagine” for Northam to handbook the direct.

Northam admitted firstly that he used to be within the photo with out saying which costume he used to be wearing. A day later, he denied he used to be within the image. However he acknowledged he once feeble shoe polish to blacken his face and witness like Michael Jackson at a dance contest in Texas in 1984, when he used to be within the Army.

Asked if Herring would perchance well even merely aloof resign, Democratic direct Del. Delores McQuinn, an African-American, did no longer solution straight.

“We’ll govern — that’s what our constituents want us to discontinue,” she said.

Herring spent most of his life in Northern Virginia’s Loudoun County, where he practiced legislation after earning bachelor’s and master’s levels from the University of Virginia and his legislation stage from the University of Richmond.

He served as a county supervisor and a direct senator sooner than getting elected legal educated modern in 2013 by a mere 165 votes out of extra than 2.2 million ballots forged. He received re-election by a extra joyful margin in 2017.

In 2006, as a direct senator, he supported a Virginia constitutional amendment that outlawed homosexual marriage. However as timeframe as legal educated modern, Herring made national headlines for his efforts to overturn Virginia’s ban on homosexual marriage.

Quickly after taking space of labor, Herring said he would no longer defend the direct in a federal lawsuit that challenged the direct’s ban on homosexual marriage as unconstitutional.

“It’s time for the commonwealth to be on the correct facet of history and the correct facet of the legislation,” he said at the time.

A federal deem overturned the direct’s homosexual-marriage ban, and cited Herring’s opposition to the ban as a “compelling” element in her choice. Virginia court clerks started issuing marriage licenses to homosexual couples in October 2014, almost a full year sooner than the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling permitting homosexual marriage nationwide.